FORT MYERS, Fla. – The FGCU Athletics Department has announced its ninth pair of 2020-21 monthly academic honorees as Kayla Whetstone, a senior on the beach volleyball team, and Magnus Johnson, a redshirt freshman on the men's tennis team, have been named the Scholar-Athletes of the Month for April.

A female and male Eagle are chosen as the FGCU Athletics Scholar-Athlete of the Month throughout the academic year. Factors in the selection for this honor include a combination of significant athletic and overall academic success.

Whetstone (Arlington, Texas/Arlington Lamar HS) graduated this spring with 3.88 GPA as she double majored in economics and finance. She was a three-time President's List honoree, a four-time Dean's List selection as well as an eight-time AD Honor Roll student. Last month, the Arlington native was named one of two winners of the Kavanagh Eagle Scholar-Athlete of the Year award. It's the highest honor FGCU bestows upon a graduating senior student-athlete(s) and recognizes the ability of the winner(s) to combine athletic and academic successes (minimum 3.20 grade-point-average) with leadership and community service.

As an ASUN First Team honoree this past spring with her teammate Kacie Johnson, the duo went 23-8 together, winning 14 of their final 16 matches, defeating five ranked teams on the season, and going 3-1 in the ASUN tournament. Whetstone, who graduated as FGCU's all-time wins leader (67), is just the third player in program history to be a two-time First Team All-ASUN selection.

"As the season and school year wind down, I am in awe at how all the athletes are able to balance conference championships and travel with all of their classes and finals," said head beach volleyball coach Chris Sweat. "Kayla has shown time and time again that she is the standard at this. As focused as she is on her team and their goals, she still knows that she is a student first and her grades and accolades show how hard she works. She left her legacy here at FGCU in a big way and I couldn't be more proud."

Johnson (Naples, Fla./UCF) owns a perfect 4.0 GPA and is majoring in management. In his first two semesters at FGCU, he's landed on the Presidents List and AD Honor Roll twice.

The Naples product was named the ASUN Player and Freshman of the Year becoming the first Eagle in program history to win both honors simultaneously. He posted a 9-3 dual match record for the Eagles in the No. 1 slot as he went 5-1 in league play and ended the season on a six-match win streak. His nine wins included two victories over nationally-ranked opponents. Johnson was ranked as high as No. 65 in the ITA standings during the year, most recently checking in at No. 88 in the latest poll (May 5).

Johnson earned the ASUN's automatic qualifier for the NCAA singles tournament that will take place from May 23-28 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla., after the conclusion of the team championship, which runs from May 17-22. He is the second Eagle in program history to receive a nod into the NCAA singles field (Jordi Vives, 2014).

"Magnus is someone who is really capitalizing on the entire student-athlete opportunity," said head men's tennis coach CJ Weber. "He takes both his tennis and academics very seriously, not wasting any time spent on either one. He's a 4.0 student as well as this year's team MVP. It's really impressive to be able to commit to what he does in both areas. I'm' excited about his opportunity to play NCAAs next weekend and see what he can do against the best that college tennis has to offer."

FGCU Scholar-Athletes of the Month
August – Cortney VanLiew (Indoor Volleyball/Beach Volleyball) and Connor Gavigan (Men's Soccer)
September – Zoey Spitzer (Women's Soccer) and Lucas Kiprotich (Men's Cross Country)
October – Snowy Burnam (Indoor Volleyball/Beach Volleyball) and Johnny Long (Baseball)
November – Wiktoria Czarnecka (Swimming & Diving) and Caleb Catto (Men's Basketball)
December – Tyra Cox (Women's Basketball) and Aiden Jokomba (Men's Soccer)
January – Hannah VanDress (Swimming & Diving) and Brian Ellis (Baseball)
February – Taylor Bauman (Softball) and Gus Carter (Baseball)
March – Maja Ornberg (Women's Tennis) and Jon Hopkins (Men's Golf)
April – Kayla Whetstone (Beach Volleyball) and Magnus Johnson (Men's Tennis)

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FGCU teams have combined to win an incredible 85 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 13+ seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just nine seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 40 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. Eight FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport - including women's basketball (No. 21, 2020-21), beach volleyball (No. 20, 2021) and both men's soccer (2018, 2019) and women's soccer (2018) as four of the most recent. In 2016-17, the Green and Blue posted a department-best sixth-place finish in the DI-AAA Learfield Directors' Cup and top-100 showing nationally, ahead of several Power-5 and FBS institutions. In 2018-19, the Eagles had an ASUN and state of Florida best seven teams earn the NCAA's Public Recognition Award for their Academic Progress Rate in their sport. FGCU also collectively earned a record 3.50 GPA in the classroom in the fall 2020 semester and has outperformed the general University undergraduate population for 23 consecutive semesters. The 2019 Fall, 2020 Spring, and 2020 Fall semesters each saw another milestone reached as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0-or-higher team GPA. The Eagles also served an all-time high 7,200 volunteer hours in 2017 - being recognized as one of two runners-up for the inaugural NACDA Community Service Award presented by the Fiesta Bowl.